How many of you here have ever misread a roadmap? Hold your hand up, will ya? Isn't it easy to do? How many of you ladies have ever misread a recipe? Hold your hand up, would ya? Yeah. How many of you men had to eat what they misread? Hold your, yeah. You know, when we read the Bible, we wanna take great care to be precise. because God has written instructions that are particular. And in a day when men want to read with a glancing and a passing eye, not even catching exactly what it says, we open ourselves to profound harm. A number of years ago, my family and I decided to take a vacation. And my wife said, what would you like to do? And I said, well, why don't we gather the kids up and go rent a little motorhome. I said, there's a fella up in town that has some, they'd just come out. And I said, this looks like a neat way to camp to me. We had always camped with a tent, and boy, I looked at this little motorhome and I thought, this is the slickest thing I've ever seen. And my wife said, well, that's a great idea, but she said, do you know how to run that? And how many of you men know that when a lady says that, there's a certain something that wells up in you that says, of course I can run that. I mean, I'm a man, I can do anything, right? I mean, I can run that thing. And I told her, I said, listen, I can run this, I'm sure. Well, I went up and I rented it and I asked the fellow, I said, now, do you have a manual? Oh, he said, we got a great manual. And he said, as long as you read the manual, you won't have any problem. And you know what? This motorhome did have a great manual. I don't care what the problem was, if you needed to know what to do, you could look it up in the index, it would tell you exactly how to handle that little motorhome. And we went out and were camping for about a week, had a great time, and suddenly my wife came to me and she said, honey, there's a little red light on the wall that has come on. What does that mean? And I said, I don't know. I didn't even know the thing was there. Let me get the manual. And I got the manual out. And what it said is when that little light comes on, your holding tanks are full. How many of you know what holding tanks are? For those of you not familiar, all the nonsense from the sink and the shower and all goes into a tank. And ultimately, when you've got three small kids, how many of you know you fill that tank in a hurry, right? And it said, what you gotta do is go to a dump site and empty the tanks. Well, I'd never done this before, and so I asked the guy, I said, where's your dump site? He said, oh, it's right down here, and showed me where. And it said, there's a hose in the bumper. And I thought, I never heard of such a hose in the bumper. And I pulled the thing off the end of the bumper, and sure enough, there was a sewer hose in the bumper. And I pulled this hose out, and it said, what you do is you go over on the left side, and you hook it up, and you lay it along the ground, and you run it down the sewer. Then it said, go over to the other side of the motorhome, and find a little air valve that's right there, and I found it. And it said in the book, in order to put, and I'll use their words, a positive force in the tank, you are supposed to put 10.5 pounds of pressure in that air valve. Now I'm standing outside reading this book, first time ever, and I didn't see that little dot. And I thought it said put 105 pounds of pressure. Hey, it's a very minor thing to miss. So here's what I said, honey. They had an air thing right there. I said, I'll put the 105 pounds of pressure in and stand on this side. And to my dear wife I said, you stand over here by the hose. And when I get 105 pounds in, you pull it. She said, okay. Now we're standing there getting our direction straight. And next to us pulls up. The most drop-dead gorgeous bus that's been converted to a motorhome you've ever seen. The thing is 40 foot long. It's a Greyhound type bus. It is fresh from the factory. Guy pulls right in next to me and my hose. He gets out and he says, do you like my bus? I said, wow, this thing is something. He said, I've just picked it up. He said, there's not, these were his words, not a bug on it. Not a bug. His wife said, that's right. Every time we hit a bug, he got out and cleaned it off. I mean, this thing was spotless. He said, do you want to know what I paid for it? He asked me. I said, well, yeah, man, what'd you pay for this? Never forget this. He said, I paid $232,000. Wow. He said, do you know why I'm emptying my tank? I said, no. He said, there's nothing in them. I just want to get the dust out. And I said, wow. Now my wife tugged on my sleeve and she said, we got more than dust in ours. Let's, let's get going here. Now, once again, she said to me, you've read the book, right? I've read it. I go over here, hook up the air thing. And it's one of these old time ones that goes ding, ding, ding. How many of you know the kind I'm talking about? Man, I hooked this thing up. It's taking forever. I mean, it's just ding, ding, ding, I'm putting air in this thing. My wife comes over. She said, what's taking so long? I said, listen, it takes a minute to do it right. I'm getting it in 105, a lot of air, I got to put it in. She looked in at the tank and she said, look at that, the tank is bulging. And I don't know why, I said, hey, it's supposed to. It's supposed to do that. I mean, I just didn't like being questioned about this. I mean, I'm telling you, it's how it's supposed to be. I said, you go back over there and I'll tell you when to pull the valve. So she walked back around. I could not quite get 105. So I told her, we got as much in as it'll do. I'll keep it on it. You pull the valve. Amazing thing I've ever seen happen. She give that thing a rip. That little hose Man, it whipped right out of the ground and it stood up. And that little hose is going brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Brother Wayne, I hear my wife yelling, oh no, oh no. Man, I come running around, here she is trying to grab that hose. The guy that owned the bus come running. I come around the corner, that thing made a pass and it hit a screen over a kitchen. Pop, put the screen right in. When it was all done. I said, man, you got more than bugs now. That man, I believe he still dreams of me. Oh, and all I did, all I did was misread one sentence. And all I missed was one period in one sentence. And you know what, if I could go up and down the rows here tonight, there'd be a lot of stories in this room of people who have misread divine instructions. And can you fathom hell is going to be full of people who didn't get the direction straight. And there's a world of dear Christian people who just weren't careful with the directions. How many of you believe when God writes the directions, not a man, God, we ought to read them with the utmost of care? The truth I take you to tonight is found all through the Bible. start in Genesis, go to Revelation, this truth is repeated over and over again. But in spite of the fact that the truth is oft repeated, it isn't a truth that we touch on very much. And I submit to you that that's often the case because this truth sometimes doesn't quite fit the image we like to leave. In Washington, D.C., there are men who they call spin doctors. And spin doctors are professionals who you bring in in the midst of any crisis, and their job is to put a spin on a story so that you take a catastrophe and spin it into something less harmful. I'm afraid that Washington isn't the only place that great spin doctors live in. Because I fear sometimes among God's people, we like to put a spin on things. And the truth I address tonight is often one that I see spun. You say, Brother Gibbs, what's the truth that you're going to talk on tonight? It's very simply this. All through the Bible, the scriptures teach that God is attracted to weakness. You say, what? The Bible says that God is attracted to weakness. It's a man-made thing to be attracted to what we think is mighty and prowess and great. It's man who loves to say, wow, look at that. But God is attracted, the Bible says, to weakness. By the way, if God weren't attracted to weakness, He could never be attracted to anything other than himself. How many of you are like me? You're just thrilled. Everybody doesn't know all the ways you're weak. Hold your hand up. But sometimes we like to sort of leave the impression that we're something. We like to leave the impression that, you know, God got quite a deal when he got me. If you're here tonight and you say, Brother Gibbs, I'll tell you, I was quite a catch. God got something when he got me. Then I submit to you, this message won't even make sense to you. Because vanity and pride has destroyed your mind. But if you're here and you say, It just amazes me that God wanted anything to do with me. I've got wonderful news. My God is attracted to weakness. Read the scriptures with me. The Apostle Paul speaking to the Corinthian church. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Let's start at verse 6. He said, for though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool. Boy, don't go over those words too quickly. The person who thinks they're something, God said, has done a number on their own head and they're playing the part of a fool. He said, And though I should desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Verse 8, for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, and now comes one of the most known verses in all the Bible. You find it on plaques, you find it on cards, you find it repeated from memory often. It says, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. But that's not the whole verse. He says, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in talent. For my strength is made perfect in your ability. God said, uh-uh. God said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. the all-powerful, all-knowing God says, you want to see what heaven can do? Then it is going to be made perfect, brought about in your weakness. When we use the word weakness in scripture, be careful that you're not fooled as to what the word means. The word weakness used here in the Bible is a very particular word and I see people, especially in America, who want to use the word weakness in ways God never used it. I know people who want to use the word weakness to substitute for the word lazy. Now you listen to me, laziness is a sin. and my God is not attracted to sin. My God's strength is not made perfect in laziness. All across America, we've got a lot of people who just don't want to work that hard. And you know what they've done? They've made an art form out of laziness and call it leisure. And what it is, is the perfection of the sin of sheer laziness. My Bible says, you don't work, you don't eat. And we got a lot of people who need to learn how to get out of bed in the morning. They need to discover that the sun rises in the east. It'll literally be a revelation for some of them. And they need to learn what it is to work until they are tired. Can I ask you this question? When's the last time you gave your all in a day? When's the last time when you pillowed your head at night and you could say to God, I gave you all I had today. Laziness is a sin. God is not attracted to laziness, and every one of us needs to be on guard because laziness has a funny way of creeping in. People say, well, I'm just pacing myself. For what? Every person in this room is rushing towards an appointment with eternity. And the privilege of working in this life will be done. Don't let laziness sap you. I grew up on a farm and I can still hear my dad saying, you're gonna work the rest of your life, you better get used to it. When I say God is attracted to weakness, he is not attracted to laziness. Nor when we use the word weakness, don't ever substitute the word slothful. Slothfulness is a sin. Do you know what slothfulness is? Listen carefully. Slothfulness is non-direction living. It means you got all these magnificent goals and no plan to bring them about. You're full of the world's most admirable of intentions, but you haven't got the first game plan to make it happen. The lady says, I want my house to be of honor to God. I want it to be clean. Wonderful. What's the plan? Well, I just hope I get out of bed one morning and the thing cleaned itself. I don't know. And they haven't got a plan. The ministry said we want to reach our area for Christ. Wonderful. What's the plan? Well, we haven't got one, but we're praying about it. Well, how long have you been praying? Ten years. At some point, you've got to stop or it's slothfulness. God not only gives us great dreams, he enables dreams through plans. What you're sitting... These men didn't walk on this property one day and say, well, will you look at that? Wonder how this thing got here. Do you know why this is here? Because some people were not slothful and they worked and they prayed and they put plans to it. My God is attracted to weakness. His strength is made perfect in weakness. But weakness is not laziness. And it's not slothfulness. Well, you say, what is it then, Brother Gibbs? If you hear nothing I say, hear these next words. Weakness is an acknowledgment from your heart that He's everything and we're nothing. It's an acknowledgment that He is everything and we are nothing. And it's not just words. You'll have no trouble convincing me if you say it. But God knows if you mean it. And when was the last time you said, God, you're not something, you're everything. And God, I don't know how you can use me at all. I'm nothing. That's weakness. And that's what God is attracted to. Tonight I ask you to write three things down and I'm done. How do we unleash heaven's strength in our weakness? How do we get the Almighty's hand, His strength made perfect in our weakness? not our laziness, not our slothfulness, but in our weakness. The Bible is very clear as to how. I give you tonight three simple prayers. You will find each of these prayers repeated many times in the Bible, but I ask you to pray them in order, because there is indeed an order to what God would have us pray. A child can know heaven's strength. You may be sitting here saying, I haven't been saved all that long. You can know heaven's strength. You may say, boy, I've been saved a long time, Brother Gibbs, I've walked. You can know heaven's strength as never before. His strength made perfect in our weakness. But it starts with three simple prayers. Now, because wonderful Christians start with the wrong prayer, they often know little of God's strength in their life. They're doing the best they can, giving it their all, but they missed the directions. The first prayer, if you want to know heaven's strength in your weakness, it's two words. Here it is. Search me. Search me. When's the last time you asked God to take heaven's floodlight and light every corner of your heart? When's the last time you said, God, take that divine flashlight and put it on everything in me that needs to go? Search me. We want to start with the wrong prayer. We want His strength in our weakness. So, Brother Rowe, the prayer we want to start with too often is, Help me! Be with me! Use me! And God said, You can't believe how much I want to help you. But before I can help you, we've got to clean you. Paul said to Timothy, there's vessels of honor and dishonor. He said there are those vessels that are fit for the master's use. And the difference is whether they have been cleaned. Not search someone else. Not search some rascal I know. Search me. You say, well brother, there's a little problem. If I ask God to search me, I'm afraid he'll like do that. He will every time. And you know, I don't know what he's gonna put the light on in your life, and you don't know what in mine, but I'll promise you he's faithful to put it right where it needs to be. But don't ask him to light it. if you're not willing to deal with it. Do you know why a lot of Christians don't want heaven's flashlight turned on? Because they got some stuff they don't want to mess with. They've gotten comfortable living with some things they had no business ever getting comfortable with. And God said, I want you to be willing for me to put that light on. And I want you to be willing to deal with it. Search me. That's what the psalmist said. Search me, O God. See if there be some wicked way in me. That's the prayer. I don't know what last week was like, but when you honestly pray that, you get ready for the most incredible week you've ever lived in your life. because God is looking to make his strength perfect. But he wants someone willing to say, search me. A baby was born to slave parents. Because the parents were slaves, the baby was a slave. And this little black baby never knew anything other than getting up and being in the fields before sunup and watching his parents work all day until after sundown. And because he grew up on a plantation where the whip was viciously used, from his earliest remembrance, All he could remember was the sound of that whip cutting through the air and then slicing into somebody's flesh. Sitting here tonight, I don't know that any of us can imagine what it would be like to have someone say, I own you. You're just a piece of property. And because I own you, I can do anything to you I please. And even if I kill you, I've done nothing wrong. A slave. When this little boy, whose name was Charlie, was five years of age, his mother did something that angered one of the plantation bosses and no one even knew what it was. But in his presence, A man took a whip and started administering a cruel beating to his mother. Charlie went over and held his mom's head in his arms, and within the hours she died. I wonder how you'd feel if someone whipped your mother to death in your presence. and then you held her head while she left this life. The next morning the plantation master was so angry that the woman would die that in vengeance he took the boy's father and sold him and the boy never saw his dad again. You're five years old and in one day your mother's beat to death in your presence and for vengeance your father is sold never ever to cross your path again. This young boy had some talent and ability and on this plantation they forbid him to get any schooling and they forbid him to go to church. And so up until age 15 all that he did was work seven days a week and at age 15 he could not read in English one word and he'd never been to church in his life. His back is carved with scars from the bottom of his heels, and the back of his head has been beaten so severely that hair will not grow there. At age 15, he is freed by the war between the states. And now he still works in the fields, but at night, for the first time, he's 15 and he's free. And so they said to Charlie, what do you want to do the first night you're free? He said, I want to go to church. He said, out of everything you can do, you want to? He said, I want to go to church for the first time in my life. He walked 12 miles one way, went to a church, and there he heard something he couldn't imagine. The preacher stood up and said, there's somebody who loves you. Charlie said, there's nobody who loves me. I'm Charlie. That preacher said, you're wrong, he loves you so much he died in your place. Charlie, the first time he's in church, hears the good news and trusts Christ as his own Savior. After they prayed with them, one of them said, do you have a Bible? He said, no. They said, we want to give you a Bible. He said, that won't do any good. He said, I can't read. They said, you mean you can't read well? He said, no, I mean I can't read at all. Not one word. I thank God for the ladies in that church. They said, listen, we need to teach this boy how to read so that he can read the Bible. Don't you ever take reading for granted. What a privilege to be able to read the word of God for yourself. It's a treasure. These ladies each night went to that plantation and diligently taught this young black boy how to read. And what an appetite he had for the word of God. The only thing that held him back was he couldn't get enough candles to keep him lit to read in the dark. He's in church one day and he's now been saved three going on four years and he said, I'd like to make an announcement. They said, what's the announcement, Charlie? He said, I believe God has called me to preach. He said, you think what? He said, I believe God's called me to preach. They looked at him and they said, son, that can't be. You've got such a disadvantageous background, so much heartache. There's just no way God would do that. He said, well, do it or not, I think he did. And one of the men there, who didn't mean wrong, said, Charlie, you've forgotten you're nothing. And it startled this boy. And tears began to roll down his cheeks and he said, you're right. You know I'm nothing. And I know I'm nothing. And he said, I'll promise you God knows I'm nothing. But he said, if the one who's everything wants to use somebody who's nothing, that's his business. And he said, just pray for me. I want to preach the word of God. They said, you'll fail. How many of you know people are quick to say that? I love what he said back. He said, boy, if it's up to me, you're dead sure right. But he said, if God's in this, he said, God's got the ability to make it happen. Went over 250 miles, went to the middle of nowhere to a place called Cape May, New Jersey, and there this young black man announced that he would be preaching. Had his first service, nobody came, so he stood up and preached to himself. Had his second service, nobody came, so he stood up and preached to himself. Third service, nobody came, so he preached to himself. Always preached an hour. And they said, how come you preached an hour? He said, because I need the preaching. And so he preached to himself. Got out, there's a nut down there preaching to himself. And people started coming just to see somebody that had that kind of commitment. His message was always the same. He's everything and I'm nothing. And you'd be amazed at the one who's everything, what he can do if someone will just admit they're nothing. People started getting saved. People started coming to church, got their lives all turned around. Church had 10, then 20, 30, 40, 50, then 100. They put up a small building, they filled it, tore it down, built another building, and pretty soon the largest church in the state of New Jersey was pastored. by this young black man. One day he stood up and he said, I believe God's called me to go to Philadelphia. That's the second largest city in America at the time and the intellectual center. They said, wait a minute, it's one thing for you to preach out here in the middle of nowhere, but you go up there, you'll never make it. Same story, first service, nobody came. Second service, nobody came. Same message. Man, if we would just humble ourselves and admit we're nothing and acknowledge he's everything and live right, God's looking to make himself strong through the people who do that. Folks started coming. Within a year's time, they were running 20. Two years' time, they were running 100. Ten years after he arrived in Philadelphia, They put up a building that could seat 600 and it was full every service. Fifteen years after he arrived, they had an auditorium that could seat 3,000 and they filled it six times every Sunday. And the largest church on the eastern seaboard was pastored by Charlie. The man's name is Charles Kindley. And you may not know his name, but I'd venture to say you know his songs. Because he was a hymn writer as well as a preacher. They came to him at the time and said, how do you ever make sense out of losing your parents? And all the things that happened to you, how do you make sense out of that? And he wrote the song, We'll Understand It Better. What's the next word? By and By was written by Charles Bentley. He said, I'll never understand it here. But he said, I promise you, he understands it all. They came to him and they said, what do you do with your burdens when you think about all the injustices that were done to you? And he wrote the song the same day. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Was written by Charles Tenway. At the end of his life, they came and said, what's the secret to what God's done in your life? Oh, he said, it's real simple. He's everything. I'm still nothing. And all I gotta be sure, and he wrote the song, is that there's nothing between my soul and the Savior. What would it take tonight to get you to say, search me? God, turn on heaven's floodlight. Here I am. I want your strength made perfect in my weakness. The second prayer. Number one, search me. Number two, mold me. Mold me. Oh, we sing the song after the great passage of scripture. Found in Jeremiah, it says, thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me, make me after thy will. What would it take for you to say, God, I want you to do to me exactly whatever you need to do for me to be what you've called me to be. Mold me. Yeah, but Brother Gibbs, that could interfere with my plans. If you're not willing to let him search you and if you're not willing to let him mold you, all you're ever going to live with is the best you can do. But if you want to know his strength made perfect in your weakness, you got to say search me and you got to say mold. My experience is, Christians who don't pray that prayer ended up getting molded anyway. How many of you, like me, have had God do some molding you never asked for? Hold your, I mean, you say, oh boy. Because you see, there's just something in David Gibbs that wants to do it my way. And God said, I'm looking for the man who wants to do it my way. Mold me. My mom was the church pianist. We never missed church. We're the folks who showed up at church an hour early and stayed an hour late. We had our own key. I'm telling you true. We lived at church. My mom was a wonderful pianist, conservatory trained. Wasn't anything she couldn't play. Man, you'd put music down, she could play it. And our whole life was me listening to my mom play with the choir and music groups, anything. Then one day our life got turned upside down. I came walking downstairs and my mom was in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. I'll never forget her words. She looked at me and she said, Davey, I think I'm really sick, son. Run get your dad. And I watched my mom walk out of the kitchen, sit down on the living room couch, and my mom never walked again. Polio had come to our house with a vengeance. Within the hour, I watched my mom curl up and start gasping for breath. I watched her struggle just to swallow. When the hospital medics came, they said, we don't know if she'll be alive to get to the hospital, but we'll try. When they took my mom out the door, I didn't realize I wouldn't see her for over two years. I tell everybody, don't you ever miss the chance to hug your mom's neck. Because you don't know when the last time will be. Two years is a long time when you're a little boy. They took my mom, put her in an iron lung, and all we got week after week was reports she's not gonna make it. Then reports we think she's gonna make it, but she'll be totally paralyzed. Finally, they said we think she's gonna have a limited use, maybe a little bit of her arms, but... But they said, now we're gonna break the quarantine and you can come see your mom. My sister and I were the most too excited kids in all the world. Just to see her was gonna be big to us. We went to the hospital, they put us behind a glass plate, we were looking down a hall, and they said, we'll bring your mom to the door and you'll see her. And I don't sound like much to you right now, but when you haven't seen your mom for two years, you can't imagine what that means. My sister and I, we showered twice. Really, just, we wanted to be perfect to see her. They wheeled my mom to the door. And when I saw her, my heart broke. She couldn't turn her head to look at us. And she had to ask somebody to turn her head so she could see us. And when I saw that, I got upset with God. I said, God, this isn't fair. My mom's done nothing but serve you. Church is our life. You didn't have to do this to us. I know people who don't go to church, God, and they got none of this. And you could have left her neck. You could have made it where she could turn her head. And I looked at my mom and my heart broke. My mom looked back at us, and how many of you know moms, they know what their kids are thinking, how many of you know that? She sent a nurse down, and the nurse came down, and she said, are you Davey? I said, yeah. She said, your mom says you're not supposed to think that. And I did exactly what every kid does. I said, I'm not supposed to think what? She runs back to my mom, comes back to me, and here's what she said. Your mom said, he's doing all things well. I thought, mom, if it makes you better to say that, okay, fine. But this isn't well. The nurse looked at me and here's her words, she said, your mom's sad. God's molding. Another year went by. I finally decided she was no longer contagious, my mom could come home. And when my mom got home, the first thing, I mean, here she comes in a wheelchair, strapped, can't hold her head up. Strapped in a wheelchair. First thing, she comes in the door, my dad said, before we put mom in bed, let's have family devotions together. It's been a long time. My dad read from the Bible. Then before we prayed, everybody gave their prayer request. You know what my mom's prayer request was? Almost fell over. She said, pray God gives me something to do for him now. And I said right out loud, Mom, We'd been down that road. We were doing everything for him, and look at what it got us. I said, you can't play the piano anymore, you can't even sit up. And my mom said, it don't have to be the piano. She said, I miss playing it more than you can imagine. But she said, anything. I just want to do something for him. Every night. Every night. That was her prayer request, pray God. The lady's strapped in a wheelchair, can't feed herself. Pray God gives me something to do for him. The pastor of the church we were going to, as mad as I ever got in my life, he came to visit my folks. And my mom said to this preacher, she said, pray God gives me something to do. And that preacher looked at my mom and he said, Miss Gibbs, you need to get this through your head. God's done with you. And when he said that, I almost hit him. I thought to myself, you may be right, but you got a lot of nerve to say it. And boy, I was mad. On the way out the door, I told him, I said, God will decide when he's done with us, not you, mister. And my mom, she said, now Davey, words just come to you, don't say nothing, son, just don't say nothing. Well, I was gonna say a lot more. You know, if you're always looking for people to say the right thing, you're gonna be very disappointed in life. Very disappointed. About a month went by, a preacher stopped by our house and he said, you know, he said, we've got a brand new work down here, and he said, we got a Sunday school, and these were his words, he said, it's a mess. That's his words, it's a mess. He said, some days we got no kids, sometimes we got five or six, a big day we have ten kids, but he said, I'm telling you, it's a mess. And he looked at my folks and he said, would you be willing to work with that mess? I thought, boy, this guy got away with words. I mean, he calls it a mess. The minute he left, I said to my mom, we're not messing with his mess, are we? I said, look, I'm telling you right now, he wants to palm it off on you because it's aggravating him. And he wants his mess to become your mess, and we already got enough messes in our life. You know what my mom said? She said, I ask God for anything. And she said, one nice thing is kids aren't afraid of me in my wheelchair. She said, adults just stare at me, but kids don't. My mom and dad prayed about it. They said, we'll be glad to do it. Boy, I told my mom, this is the dumbest thing I ever heard of. Going to a Sunday school with no kids. And I reminded her every day. I said, you watched, I'm gonna be right in this. You know what my mom did? Every day she had us get her up, dress her, and put her in front of the mirror, and for an hour she practiced her Sunday school lesson. And then she had us put her back in bed. And I thought, man, she's trying so hard. Come the Sunday, we go to Sunday school, there's not a kid there, none. And I told my mom, see, there's no kids here, none. She looked at me and she said, no, there's kids here. I said, who? She said, you and your sister. I couldn't believe it. I thought I'm doomed to go to Sunday school with my sister the rest of my life. But my mom gave us that lesson like there were a hundred or a thousand kids there. Finally one day, a couple months later, my mom said, you know, I figured out what's wrong. I said, what's that? She said, our Sunday school don't have any kids in it. And I said, way to go mom, you got it. She said, but I've been praying and I got an idea. I said, what's that? She said, tomorrow I want you to take me downtown to the big bus company and we're gonna ask them to give us a bus so we can bring some kids to our Sunday school. I said, the big one in town? She said, yeah. I said, I don't think they'd give them away down there. I don't think they do. You know what she said? She said, they'll just have to. She said, I've been praying and we're going to watch God do what only God can do. Boy, the next day I take her down there. Huge bus company. No place to park. We finally park up against the wall. I mean, there's hundreds of buses. We park under a window. I get my mom out. I said, now don't be disappointed when they say no. She said, you just take me in. And I get her in her wheelchair. I strap her all up. We go in. Come up to the receptionist. The receptionist said, can I help you? My mom said, we've come so you can give us a bus. And the lady said, I beg your pardon? And she said, we got a Sunday school like you to give us a bus. The lady said, I don't think we do that here. But she said, I'll call somebody down. She calls the vice president down. Guy comes down, very nice. My mom said, look, we got a Sunday school and I got a heart to see some kids know Jesus. Could you give us a bus we could use? And the man said, lady, We don't do that, and we're not gonna do that. And he said, now I'm real sorry to tell you no, but if you get some money, and he said, they're expensive, you come back. But he said, I'm telling you right now, I've worked here 35 years, we have never done that, we're not gonna start now. And he said, I just want you to know, I'm sorry, but no. And he was real polite, but adamant. And my mom said, well, I appreciate you telling me that. I mean, she's in a wheelchair, She said, before I leave, could I ask one question? He said, sure. My mom said, do the buses belong to you? And he said, what do you mean? She said, do you own them or do you just work here? And he said, well, I don't own them, but I'm the vice president. He said, no, the buses don't belong. And my mom said, well, no wonder you can't give me a bus. They're not yours to give. And the receptionist sitting there said, yeah, that's right. They don't belong to him. And I'm kind of like, you know, that's pretty good. Way to go, mom. Score one. I mean, that was... She said, can I talk to the owner? He said, lady, the owner won't talk to you. She said, would you call? He called. Here comes the owner of the whole thing. That man walks down. He said, I'll tell you why I'm here. He said, you parked your car right under my office window. And unbeknownst to you, I saw the pain you went through just to get in here. He said, I've never seen anybody care about something that much. Now he said, I'm not giving you a bus, but I thought I ought to tell you personally. My mom said, well, thank you. She said, before I leave, can I just say one thing? And he said, sure. She said, one day when you stand before God, he's gonna be awfully upset that you didn't give me a bus. When she said that, I went, Mom! Lighten up, Nano! The man said, what? She said, you could help me make a difference in where kids spend eternity. And she said, I don't think God's gonna like it. That man looked at my mom and he said, lady, I got a question for you. My mom said, what? He said, if I gave you a bus, who would drive it, you? And my mom said, well, You know what? You're right. She said, I hadn't thought of that. She said, I need you to give me a bus and a driver. And when she said that, the vice president goes, I don't believe this lady. It's unbelievable. He said, OK, lady, you hear me. Now you hear me. He said, I will give you one bus and one driver one Sunday. And the vice president said, Al, and I love what he said, he said, look, she's already pointed out to you, they don't belong to you. And if I want to give a bus away, I'll give one of my buses away. He said, but I'm only committing it for one Sunday. I thought, I don't believe this. I don't believe she got a bus and a driver. My mom. Oh, thank you. Thank you. She said, but She said, I'm sitting here, I gotta tell you, I need three of them. He said, you need three? She said, there's three parts to this town. And she said, God really wanted me to ask for three and I didn't have the nerve. Could I please have three buses and three drivers? I love what the man said. He said, lady, you're unbelievable. He said, I'll give you three buses and three drivers for one Sunday, but you gotta be dead sure God knows about this, okay? What he told my mom. And my mom said, oh, I will, I will. On the way home in the car, I said, I don't believe this, mom. You got three buses, you... She said, I didn't get them. She said, son, I can't dress myself. I gotta be pushed everywhere I go. But she said, I serve a God who can mold people. And he can use what he molds them into. He only gave us three buses and three drivers for one Sunday. Because the second Sunday he gave us four. And within five years he was giving us 35 buses and 35 drivers every Sunday. And he did it for over 20 years. and never charged a penny. The Sunday school with no kids in it, in seven years time, never, never, had less than 5,000 children every Sunday. And it was run by a lady who couldn't hold her own head up He wrote my mom a letter at the end. And Brother Rowe, I love the letter. He said, Miss Gibbs, best thing I ever did was give you some buses. He said, because I gave you some buses, he said, my whole family is now saved and on their way to heaven. He said, because my kids rode your buses. And then he put in parentheses, which were really my buses. Can you imagine? My mom talked him into painting the Sunday school name on the bus. He said, because of you, almost every bus driver I've got is saved and on his way to heaven. He said, because a lady in a wheelchair wouldn't let him sit in the bus. Every Sunday, she'd have me push her. I don't care how deep the snow was. I don't care how bad she was hurting. She'd have me go bus to bus. And she'd say to the driver, now you put out your cigarette, you're going to church with me today. She said, it's time for you to clean up your life and get saved. Come on. He said, thanks for doing what couldn't be done. Are you ready to be molded into what he wants to do? Search me, mold me. Third prayer, his strength in your weakness, search me, mold me, lead me. Not my will, but thy will be done. You say, but I got plans. That's the problem, we all do. We've all got our own agendas, our own ideas, our own plans. And God's looking for somebody who says, you just lead, I'll follow. Wonderful hymn of invitation, where he leads me, I will follow. But what a Bible truth. Anywhere, anywhere. Put heaven's flashlight on me. Search me. Mold me. Make me into what you want me to be. And you lead me. His strength is made perfect in weakness. Father, thank you tonight for these dear people. Thank you for the great truths of the Word of God that are so precise. Forgive us for only reading part of the instructions. Indeed, your grace is sufficient for us. But may we never forget that your strength is made perfect in our weakness. Tonight, Father, Search us. And God, I pray, mold us and lead us. A man was an outstanding member of a fine Baptist church. He was in the pet business. And in his pet store, he's there one day and a little boy came in. And a little boy came up to this man not knowing that he owned the store and he said, have you got dogs for sale here? And this man said, son, we got puppies for sale everywhere. And he said, well, how many dogs can you get for $2.34? He said, son, I don't have any $2.34 puppies. He said, I just don't. And he said, well, that's all I got. But he said, I'd sure love to have a dog. And the man said, well, I haven't got any to sell quite that cheap, but he said, I'll tell you what, you're sure welcome to take a look at the pups we do have for sale. And the boy said, can I pet some? He said, I'd just like to pet some today. And the man said, well, I'll tell you what, the store is empty and we don't allow them to just pet the puppies, but he said, our own dog just had a litter of puppies. And he said, if you'd like to pet them, I'll bring her out here and son, you can pet those puppies. And so the man went in the back of his store and brought out a beautiful, beautiful Irish setter. And following behind her were four gorgeous little puppies, trailing after their mom. And this man said, when that little boy saw those dogs, his eyes just lit up. And he said, oh, he said, I just want to pet them. I just want to pet them. And he said he knelt down and was petting these puppies. And he said, then here came a fifth puppy struggling across the floor. A puppy that was following at a distance. He said four of the puppies had been born perfectly normal. But the fifth puppy was born without a hip. And so it was dragging its hind legs across the floor, pulling to keep up. He said, Brother Gibbs, when that little boy saw that puppy dragging itself, he immediately dropped the other puppies and went right to that one. And he said, oh, mister, this is the one I want. This is the one. This is the one. The man said, son, you don't want that puppy. That puppy's not like the other puppies, son. He was born without a hip and son these other puppies are the ones that you want to put your attention this boy said no sir this is the puppy I want and he said if you'll let me buy it how I'll pay he said what do you sell these puppies for he said well son these dogs are two hundred dollars and he said this one's not for sale at all it it's not worth anything he said it is too mister He said, this puppy is worth ever picking as much as the other puppies. And he looked at this man and he said, you just don't know it yet. He said, son, you don't understand. We only sell healthy quality pets. This puppy's worthless. It doesn't have a hip. And he said, Brother Gibbs, what that little boy did in the next 30 seconds, I'll never forget. He stood up. And he said he pulled up his shirt. And he pulled down his side. And here were all the wires. He said, you see, I was born without a hip, too. And all that puppy needs is a friend. Somebody who loves him. You know what the tragedy is? We've started picking friends like the world picks friends. We're only interested in the pretty puppies. The handsome puppies. And nobody wants to pay attention to the little floor dragon puppy. You know what you're gonna forget? One day you're gonna be the puppy dragon across the floor. And one day you're gonna need a friend. How many of you have ever spent a time in your life when you were dragging? Oh my. Paul said, let me tell you about my friend. He oft refreshed me. Man, he put something into me. That little boy wasn't interested in what that dog could do for him. He was interested in what he could do for that puppy. Do you know what friends are? They're the people who are interested in not what they can get from you, but in what they can do for you. He oft refreshed me. Look at the second requirement of a friend. The Lord give mercy unto the house of Vanessa Forrest, for he oft refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. Do you know what? Something will come into your life that'll be in somebody's best interest not to be your friend. Some chain will come into your life. Here was Paul. It wasn't in anybody's best interest to identify with him. He was a convicted felon. He was facing death. I mean, Paul would have been the first to tell you, listen guys, best you keep your distance from me. But he said, let me tell you about my friend. He was not ashamed of my change. What is it that's keeping you from being somebody's friend? My wife was recently with a group of ladies in Atlanta and she said, honey, there was a woman at this meeting who had the most incredible facial disorder, she said, I've ever seen. She was a beautiful lady But about two years ago, her face started erupting in medically uncontrollable, huge boils and cysts all over her face, all over her scalp, all over her shoulders, down her arms and on her hands, down her back. She said two years ago I would walk in a room and anybody would want to sit by me. And she said now I walk into a room and nobody wants to be near me. And she said you can't imagine the pain of just not wanting to have people near you. Just near you. You know what the world says? If you're pretty, we're interested in you. But when you're not pretty, and when you're not on top, and if you've got some kind of chain in your life, if it's in my best interest not to know you, all of a sudden they just part away. He said, he was not ashamed of my chain. The friend is the person who comes in when everybody else is walking out. That's a friend. He's coming in when everybody else says, don't you understand? This ship's going down. He says, you don't understand, I'm a friend. And I'm coming in no matter who's going out. He oft refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my change. Look at the third thing and I'm done. He said he off refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, now, Onesiporus lived in Ephesus. That was a country away. He had a long distance just to get there. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me. Do you know what a friend will do? They find you. They find you. Oh, well, Brother Gibbs, if somebody comes across my path, I'll be their friend. No, no, no, no. You're like me. We're real good at steering our paths so that we can control who comes across them. Do you know what a friend does? He's on the prowl looking for who he can help. He sought me out very diligently. Boy, I wonder who this week you sought out very diligently so that you could be their friend. Not a taker, a giver. I have people say, man, I have trouble making friends. Not when you seek them out very diligently. You're going to find the world is full of people who need you to be a Bible friend. Our son David, who you know, when he was 12 years old, had an incredible surgery. His chest bone had grown through him and touched his spine. The doctors couldn't explain it. They couldn't stop it. It had done terrible damage to his lungs, to his heart, We lived at the hospitals and the doctor's offices. And then they said we have to try to do some surgery where we are going to take his ribcage off of his body. The left side of his ribcage will go to one operating room, the right side will go to another. And while it's gone, we are going to hold his body together with steel bands. And then all of the organs are gonna be operated on and we're gonna try to bring the ribcage back and put him back together. That doctor said, if you know anybody who knows how to pray, you need to call them. And boy, we did. It was the night before the surgery and David said, Dad, can I stay up tonight? And when there's a genuine, genuine concern in your heart that you say, this could be the last night. It's a special night. I said, sure. Here we are in a hospital, huge inner city hospital, up on about the 12th floor. And it's just ahead of midnight. And out of nowhere, the most startling thing happened. Knock, knock, knock on the window from the outside. I mean, I jumped. I mean, when you're way, way, way up in the air and something's going on the window. I thought, what in the world? 12, 13 stories up, I walked over and pulled the drapes back, pulled up a valance that was down, and here on the other side of the window was David's Sunday school teacher. Standing on the fire escape, 12 stories up. I said, Yolanda, man, window's still down. I can hear. She said, can I come in? I said, man, let me get this window up. We got the window up. I helped. I said, what are you doing? She said they wouldn't let me up. I've been here all day. I've been trying since morning. And I just had to get to it. I just wanted to get to it. She said, there's four or five people scared out of their minds. Because I've been knocking on the wrong windows. And she said, Dave, you'll like this, they finally put the hospital police on me. And wouldn't you know, the policeman I got is a Sunday school teacher too. And I told him I'm trying to get to this boy. And he brought me up. If I promise not to tell he did it. She said I just had to get to him. Who in your heart are you enough of a friend to that you'd say I have to get to them? He sought me out very diligently. Paul was in a hewn-out stone jail cell, and Anesiphorus found him. And he said, Paul, I'm your You can't believe what a privilege, what an honor it is to be somebody's friend. He oft refreshed me. He was not ashamed of my chain. And he sought me out very diligently. Oh, will you say if I do that, Brother Gibbs, I'd be a different kind of person? You won't believe what a kind of person you'll be. You'll be what God wants you to be. You'll be a Bible friend. Paul, God used you to get the gospel to the whole world. And Paul, you got a friend who's there to refresh you, who's not ashamed of what's come into your life, and who's there that's gonna find you. Men, would you be that kind of friend? That kind of friend. You read the next couple of verses and it says, in that day, when we stand before the Lord, you can't believe the reward Onesiphorus is going to get because he was a friend. A friend. I want to be a better friend. I want to be the man who is there to refresh. I want to be the man who's not ashamed of the chain in somebody's life. And I want to be the man who seeks them out very diligently. How many of you say, Brother Gibbs, I want to be that man, too? Hold your hand up, would you? Father, you see our hands. Far more importantly, you see our hearts. What a privilege it is to get to be a friend. Of all the words used in the Bible to describe the Savior, he is the friend who sticketh closer than a brother. And we have the honor of being called as Christians to be a friend, not just to those we like, or not just to those above all who we can use. That's not friendship at all. That's just selfishness with a different title. We want to be real friends. Father, thank you for speaking to hearts tonight. May we leave this place different. Thank you for this marvelous church, this incredible ministry, this wonderful night. But the most important thing that could happen is that we'd be doers and not hearers of what your word calls us to be. For those that are here that may never have trusted Christ, oh, Father, you love so much that you came into this world. That's unimaginable, to die in our place so that we could have life everlasting. And all we have to do is believe and accept what you did on our behalf, that's all. And Father, for the dear Christians that are here, what a different life it is when someone decides to be a Bible friend, a real friend. a friend like Anesiphorus. Father, make this night special. By the power of your spirit, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to this sermon by Attorney David Gibbs. Attorney Gibbs is founder and president of the Christian Law Association, a ministry of legal helps to Bible-believing churches and Christians. Because CLA is a faith ministry, the legal work it performs is done at no charge to those helped or defended. You may contact the Christian Law Association by writing to P.O. Box 4010, Seminole, Florida, 33775. That's the Christian Law Association, P.O. Box 4010, Seminole, Florida, 33775.